Night After Night

Best of 2007.

As published in the December 27 edition of Time Out New York, here is my annual list of the top ten events, happenings and developments in New York City's classical music scene for 2007 (in alphabetical order), followed by lists of my top ten classical and non-classical recordings.

"Berlin in Lights" Carnegie Hall's ambitious salute to Germany's cultural capital offered context for incandescent performances by Gustavo Dudamel, Simon Rattle and many more.

Concrete Robert Ashley's latest multimedia opera took us someplace we'd never been before: deep inside the composer's most personal memories.

Sasha Cooke After an arresting summer cameo at the Bard Music Festival, this young mezzo served notice of a major talent on the rise at Zankel Hall in October. [New note: Cooke is currently appearing as the Sandman in the Met's Hansel and Gretel, and will present a concert titled "The Eternal Feminine" at Ico Gallery (formerly Gallerie Icosahedron) on Thursday, January 10 at 7pm.]

Delusion of the Fury Japan Society's sharp production of Harry Partch's quirky magnum opus was the year's most moving revival.

DG Web Shop The venerable Deutsche Grammophon label unveiled the first download store guaranteed to please the pickiest classical audiophile.

ICE Burg The International Contemporary Ensemble set up shop in Brooklyn in spring, and promptly mounted its biggest, most diverse New York season to date.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia How could the Metropolitan Opera improve Bartlett Sher's winning new production? By adding spunky mezzo Joyce DiDonato to the mix.

Iphigénie en Tauride Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo were riveting in this profound Gluck drama, while director Stephen Wadsworth deftly balanced the mythic and the intimate.

Nico Muhly In his debut Zankel Hall showcase, wildly inventive composer Muhly stacked his quirky postclassical pieces up against the Tudor church music that first fired his imagination.

What Next? Elliott Carter marked his 99th birthday with a sold-out run of his cryptic opera at Miller Theatre.

Top Ten Classical Recordings

1. J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations (Telarc) Simone Dinnerstein's intensely personal take on this keyboard cornerstone polarized critics... and became a runaway hit.

2. Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians (Innova) Michigan's Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble made a disc of the minimalist masterpiece that won the composer's approval.

3. Osvaldo Golijov Oceana (Deutsche Grammophon) Dawn Upshaw, the Kronos Quartet, Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony demonstrated the infinite variety of the Argentine composer's music.

4. Robert Ashley Now Eleanor's Idea (Lovely Music) More than a decade after the last performance of Ashley's freewheeling lowrider exegesis, recording technology has finally caught up.

5. Tristan Murail Winter Fragments (Aeon) Michel Galante's excellent Argento Chamber Ensemble made its CD debut with crystalline landscapes from a modern French master.

6. Sibelius and Lindberg Violin Concertos (Sony Classical) Lisa Batiashvili reveled in the cool fire of Sibelius's familiar showpiece, and introduced a new classic by Lindberg.

7. Bridget Kibbey Love Is Come Again (self-released) With playing, production and packaging as gorgeous as local harpist Kibbey provided on her first CD, who needs a record label?

8. Mark Padmore As Steals the Morn... (Harmonia Mundi) Handel recitals arrive more often than crosstown buses, but British tenor Padmore commanded respect for his poise and precise diction.

9. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8 (RCA Red Seal) Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie turned two well-worn standards into brisk, bracing voyages of discovery.

10. Michael Harrison Revelation (Cantaloupe) Pianist-composer Harrison documented his just-intonation solo manifesto, and the results were completely absorbing.

Top Ten Non-Classical Recordings

1. Suzanne Vega Beauty & Crime (Blue Note) New York's soft-spoken poet laureate fashioned a love letter to her hometown, filled with ghosts, nostalgia and quiet passion.

2. Tyshawn Sorey that/not (Firehouse 12) The young polymath drummer, pianist, trombonist and composer recorded a suitably audacious CD debut. [Bonus track: My TONY CD review, from the December 13 issue.]

3. Radiohead In Rainbows (W.A.S.T.E.) A mix of solid songcraft and adventure made Radiohead's seventh studio effort vital well past its download-by date.

4. Robert Glasper In My Element (Blue Note) In their second Blue Note outing, pianist Glasper and his triomates breath fresh life and fire into a well-worn format.

5. Battles Mirrored (Warp) Mixing Ty Braxton's loopy, good-natured vocals with a solid math-metal core is sort of like watching Multiplication Rock on the monitor while sweating at Crunch.

6. Muhal Richard Abrams Vision Toward Essence (Pi) The Chicago patriarch distills a lifetime spent extending jazz tradition into a single hour at the piano.

7. Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles Diamonds in the Dark (Sugar Hill) Boston singer-guitarist Borges draws a straight line from Wanda Jackson to X in this memorable set of rowdy rockers and weepy ballads.

8. Exploding Star Orchestra We Are All from Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey) Globe-trotting cornetist Rob Mazurek and his big big band hit escape velocity in a fiery set that bites Sun Ra, Steve Reich, Kraftwerk and funk.

9. Brakesbrakesbrakes The Beatific Visions (Worlds Fair) It's just a madly infectious collection of twangy pub punk -- until you notice undertones of paranoia and wartime unease in Eamon Hamilton's lyrics.

10. Sam Sadigursky The Words Project (New Amsterdam) Saxophonist Sam Sadigursky's literate, luminous poetry settings are given voice by a bumper crop of impressive young singers.

I abstained from both the Idolator and Pazz & Jop polls this year, reckoning that I hadn't paid very much attention to pop records this year (and didn't care much for most of what I heard -- The National being a noteworthy exception). But for good measure, here's the ballot I submitted for this year's Village Voice Jazz Poll, half of which you'll recognize from what immediately preceded it.

Top Ten Jazz CDs of 2007

1. Tyshawn Sorey that/not (Firehouse 12)

2. Robert Glasper In My Element (Blue Note)

3. Muhal Richard Abrams Vision Toward Essence (Pi)

4. Exploding Star Orchestra We Are All from Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey)

5. Sam Sadigursky The Words Project (New Amsterdam)

6. Tim Berne's Bloodcount Seconds (Screwgun)

7. The Bad Plus Prog (Do the Math/Heads Up)

8. Brad Shepik Trio Places You Go (Songlines)

9. Myra Melford and Tanya Kalmanovitch Heart Mountain (Perspicacity)

10. Amir ElSaffar Two Rivers (Pi)

Reissues

1. Miles Davis The Complete On the Corner Sessions (Sony Legacy)

2. Bennie Maupin The Jewel in the Lotus (ECM)

3. Charles Mingus Charles Mingus in Paris: The Complete America Recordings (Sunnyside)

Top vocal CD

Sam Sadigursky The Words Project (New Amsterdam)

Top debut CD

Tyshawn Sorey that/not (Firehouse 12)

The English concert.

The most striking thing I've read about Canadian band The Musical Box is that Peter Gabriel (pictured left) once took his children to see the group, so that they would understand what daddy did back when he was a lanky young man with an inverse mohawk shaved into his shaggy hair.

For some years now, the Musical Box has visited New York City every December, playing a pair of shows at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. I wrote a brief preview piece for a recent issue of TONY. And I'd long been curious to witness the group in action; last night, accompanied by Dr. LP and my TONY prog pal Josh Rothkopf, I finally managed to do so.

Since 1993, the members of the Musical Box -- both the performers and a raft of offstage designers and technicians -- have devoted themselves with a single-minded fervor to recreating in exacting detail the shows that Genesis performed in support of its early albums Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The specific show we saw last night was the one dubbed the "Black Show," employed during Genesis's 1974 North American tour.

Setlist: Watcher of the Skies / Dancing with the Moonlit Knight / Cinema Show / I Know What I Like / Firth of Fifth / The Musical Box / Horizon / The Battle of Epping Forest / Supper's Ready / Encore: The Knife

With the rise of prog-friendly modern acts like Radiohead, Porcupine Tree and the Mars Volta, Gabriel-era Genesis has been re-evaluated lately. And while it's the yacht-rock Genesis of the ’80s that most people reflexively think of nowadays, it's fair to say that between 1973 and 1975, few rock acts were as consistently innovative as Genesis.

On stage, the players ably recreated florid Baroque studio concoctions such as "The Musical Box," "Cinema Show" and the epic "Supper's Ready." But what really set Genesis apart from the crowd during those early years was the spectacle of its stage show. With regard to lighting, sets and props, Genesis was nearly peerless; only Alice Cooper devoted as much energy to making a rock show into a true multimedia theatrical event.

Just as critical were the contributions of Gabriel himself. Anyone who came in with "Shock the Monkey" or especially "In Your Eyes" might be shocked to see just how fundamentally bizarre and unsettling Gabriel was during his Genesis days. Adorned in eerie makeup and outlandish costumes, Gabriel pranced, leaped and stalked the stage. He crammed black humor, social concern and a mysticism straight out of Blake into his lyrics, and filled the spaces between songs with chimerical monologues: bizarre, unsettling fairy tales delivered in a deadpan, and punctuated with hysterical cackles.

Courtesy of YouTube, here's Genesis playing "Watcher of the Skies" on the Midnight Special in 1973:

The Musical Box has devoted phenomenal attention to recreating those early Genesis shows, spending untold hours not just learning the notes and studying the moves, but also building the props and sets, duplicating the costumes, procuring and reconditioning the original instruments, and even transcribing the monologues. The result is nothing like a typical cover band, where some rock-star wanna-be prances around and pretends to be Jim Morrison, Axl Rose or Morrissey for a while. It's more like a cross between a repertory theater company and a period-instrument Baroque ensemble. Same abiding fervor, same attention to detail.

In this pursuit, the Musical Box has been aided repeatedly by Genesis itself: Tony Banks allowed the group to hear the original master tapes separated into their component tracks, so specific parts could be learned more precisely. And for several years, the Musical Box had not just an exclusive license to perform The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway live, but also the thousand-plus slides used in the original 1975 stage presentations.

That license has since expired, and rumors continue to swirl that the Gabriel-era Genesis lineup -- Gabriel, Banks, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins -- will actually reunite next year to coincide with a boxed set of remastered CDs. I've even heard tell that the idea is for the original players to re-stage and film Lamb themselves. That might be well worth seeing, but I can't imagine that Gabriel, Collins et al could do a better job at recreating vintage Genesis than the Musical Box currently does.

Two things prompted me to finally see the Musical Box last night. The first was news that Gregg Bendian -- an estimable avant-garde composer and free-jazz drummer, founder of the Mahavishnu Project and a longtime friendly acquaintance -- had taken on the role of Phil Collins. Bendian replaced Martin Levac, who departed, ironically or not, to front Turn It On Again, an ’80s-era Genesis tribute band due to play the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in March.

The other compelling reason was that Denis Gagné (pictured left), an absolutely uncanny Peter Gabriel, will be taking next year off, as the rest of the group soldiers onward with a recreation of A Trick of the Tail, the first post-Gabriel Genesis album. (As I noted in my TONY preview, apparently those who do know history are also doomed to repeat it.)

Lead guitarist François Gagnon executed Steve Hackett's intricate parts even more precisely than Hackett himself played them originally. Bassist-guitarist Sébastian Lamothe, founder of the Musical Box, and keyboardist David Myers filled their respective roles superbly.

In the days building up to the concert, Josh and I were all abuzz over the notion that this would be our first time hearing an actual Mellotron played live, and we were fairly awestruck with the authenticity of the sound last night. That said, the Wikipedia entry on the Mellotron states that the Musical Box actually tours with a digitally sampled version rather than the real instrument. If that's true, all I can say is that its samples were startlingly good, and far more authentic than those used by the King Crimson alumni group 21st Century Schizoid Band.

I still don't find the notion of tribute bands very appealing, but the Musical Box is a thing apart: a faithfully executed replication of a historical body of work, enacted with surpassing skill and infectious passion by a large cadre of talented devotees. And most of all, the group genuinely rocks: I can't say that I ever appreciated just how hard Banks, Rutherford and Collins played back in the early ’70s until I saw Myers, Lamothe and Bendian dig in last night.

Once again from YouTube, here's the Musical Box (with Levac, not Bendian) playing "Watcher of the Skies" in Turin, in 2004:

Mystery play.

Master drummer Billy Hart is leading his killer quartet with pianist Ethan Iverson, saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street (L-R in Jim Eigo's photo, above) through Sunday night at Iridium in midtown Manhattan. I reviewed this group at the Village Vanguard in April 2006 (go here, scroll down), and caught it again in the last night's late set.

Once more I was struck by the variety, complexity, personality and power of this group's playing. Turner uncorks fragmented narratives with unflappable poise and a master's patience. Iverson tosses off some of the knottiest harmonies you'll find in a more-or-less mainstream setting, not to show off but to provide his bandmates with limitless choices. (One solo culminated with a line that tumbled down to the bottom of the keyboard; Iverson let the momentum carry him still further, right off the stage.) Street is the band's center of gravity; Hart pushes, stretches, fragments and shifts the time while never losing the thread.

When you go, pay special attention to Hart's spoken introductions. At first, I thought these gnomic pronouncements were some sort of random performance poetry. After a while, I realized that he was providing clues. For instance: "What in the world would the world do without Wayne Shorter?" was the introduction to Shorter's "Dance Cadaverous," while "So it could have been a fairy tale… but it's a country" prefaced the smoking set closer, "Airegin." (Read the title backward if it's unfamiliar.)

I'm still scratching my head, I confess, over a reference to Santa Claus before the set's second tune, and I can't decipher the introduction to the fourth tune ("She was the daughter of the dutchess"), either. Someone, probably Iverson, will e-mail me the solutions to these puzzles, I'm sure. Meanwhile, if Hart ever gets tired of playing -- hopefully never -- I think he might just have a bright future with the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Playlist:

Eliane Radigue - Chry-ptus (Schoolmap)

Sachiko M - Salon de Sachiko (Hitorri/Improvised Music from Japan)

Genesis - Live, Seconds Out and Three Sides Live (Atlantic)

Napalm Death - Death by Manipulation (Earache)

Lamb of God - As the Palaces Burn (Prosthetic)

Radiohead - Kid A and Amnesiac (Capitol)

Eliane Radigue - Chry-ptus (Archive.org stream -- part of a 1980 interview with Radigue broadcast by KPFA-FM; props to Give Me Take You for pointing it out.)

Playing respect.

The New York Philharmonic Messiah at Avery Fisher Hall
The New York Times, December 21, 2007

The pause that refreshes.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Rose Theater
The New York Times, December 19, 2007

Complimentary Glass.

Philip Glass has had a huge 70th-birthday year, and now he's sharing his good fortune. Head over to Glass Notes, the official Glass blog, and you can download free of charge an exclusive unplugged performance of "Raising the Sail," a cue from Glass's score for The Truman Show, taped live in Gmuden, Austria during the late '90s.

The performance, according to blogmeister Richard Guerin, comes from one of three European concerts at which Glass and his group played acoustic. The explanation:

In the late 1990's the Philip Glass Ensemble had arranged a European tour in which there was not enough time for the group to transport its considerable gear from city to city. To compensate, they agreed to play 3 performances "unplugged" in which they played classic PGE repertoire acoustically.  Until now, only those who attended those shows had ever heard this music performed in such a way.

It's a quiet, understated track with an appealing mix of timbres; those tubular bells take me right back to Glass's score for Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. How about some domestic dates?

And more importantly, what about Part 12 of the iTunes exclusive Music in 12 Parts?

Playlist:

Grateful Dead - Road Trips, Vol. 1, No. 1: Fall '79 (Grateful Dead/Rhino)

Radiohead - In Rainbows CD 2 (W.A.S.T.E. discbox)

Neurosis - Given to the Rising (Neurot)

Miley Cyrus et al - Hannah Montana and Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus (Walt Disney)

Shakira - Love in the Time of Cholera EP (Epic/iTunes exclusive)

Carl Nielsen - Symphony No. 4; Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 3 - Hallé Orchestra/John Barbirolli (BBC Legends)

Janel and Anthony - "Your Favorite Song," "Goodbye Angels," "Little Cottage in the Woods," "E Lydian" (MySpace streams)

Engelbert Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel - Rebecca Evans, Jennifer Larmore, Jane Henschel, Philharmonia Orchestra/Charles Mackerras (Chandos)

Jonny Greenwood - Bodysong (EMI)

King Crimson - Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Columbus, OH, Apr. 28, 1974 (DGMlive.com download)

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons (Constellation, due March 23)

Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde - Waltraud Meier, Michelle De Young, Ian Storey, Gerd Grochowski, Matti Salminen, Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala Milan/Daniel Barenboim (YouTube, per Parterre Box)

Christmas cheer, holiday ham.

Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola

and

Isaac Mizrahi does Peter and the Wolf at the Guggenheim Museum
The New York Times, December 17, 2007

Under new management.

The New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, December 11, 2007

Where is downtown?

(Posted this afternoon on the TONY Blog)

Peter Cherches -- poet, occasional vocalist, jazz fan and food blogger extraordinaire -- compiled a concise but thorough research guide covering the history of New York's downtown music scene(s) for the Fales Library at New York University earlier this year. Today he posted his work online for everyone's enjoyment and edification. At a glance, it's a terrifically useful starting point for anyone still baffled by the term downtown music and its varying meanings.

Cherches's Downtown Music 1971-1987: An Overview and Resource Guide provides an overview of major figures (such as archetypal downtowner John Zorn, left), performance venues and stylistic developments during the period defined by its title. The first section covers downtown music in the contemporary-classical sense: the territory Tom Johnson and later Kyle Gann valiantly detailed in the Village Voice. Laurie Anderson, Julius Eastman and Bob Telson are included, as is virtually every figure whose name was mentioned in the Great Minimalism Debate of 2007.

Part two deals with the punk scene that primarily developed around CBGB from 1974 to 1978. The third section takes on No Wave -- DNA, James Chance, Lydia Lunch and so on. The fourth part handles the loft jazz scene that took root at Sam Rivers's Studio Rivbea, Rashied Ali's Ali's Alley, Environ and the like: a movement whose current descendant is the Vision Festival scene fostered by William Parker and Patricia Nicholson. Part five covers the music most commonly associated with the downtown music tag these days: the era of John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Jim Staley, Kip Hanrahan, etcetera.

In each section, Cherches offers a short, smart introduction to the major movers, scenes and stylistic trends. Each essay is followed by a list of prominent artists and venues, a selected bibliography and discography, and a list of hyperlinked web resources.

It's a major piece of work, and it's also intended to be a starting point rather than a conclusion. To that end, Cherches has also launched a related blog, Downtown Music, 1971-1987, for commentary and additional feedback.

(Non-TONY note: Thanks, Pete, for sharing this outstanding project.)

Counterpoint.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the New York Society for Ethical Culture

and

The Tallis Scholars at St. Thomas Church
The New York Times, December 8, 2007